Walker
DANVILLE WALKER'S fate as the country's director of elections could be decided on Wednesday when the Electoral Commission of Jamaica meets. A member of the Electoral Commission confirmed yesterday that Walker's continued role as director of election would be an item on the agenda.
Concerns about Walker's eligibility as director of elections were raised by lawyers representing People's National Party (PNP) candidate for Western Portland, Abe Dabdoub, during an election petition brought against Daryl Vaz.
Vaz ousted
Dabdoub's lawyers made a successful bid in the Supreme Court to get the Jamaica Labour Party's (JLP) Daryl Vaz ousted as MP from West Portland. The court ruled that Vaz, by virtue of his own act, had pledged allegiance or obedience to the United States and should be disqualified.
Walker, like Vaz, is a United States citizen. Dabdoub's attorneys, as well as PNP chairman Robert Pickersgill have charged that under Section 3 of the Electoral Commission (Interim) Act of 2006, Walker should be disqualified from holding the post of director of elections.
The section states that a person will be disqualified from holding the post if that person is not a citizen of Jamaica, not resident in Jamaica, or by his own act, has acknowledged allegiance, obedience or adherence to a foreign power or state.
Professor Errol Miller, chairman of the Electoral Commission of Jamaica, had said that the body would await the outcome of the Dabdoub vs Vaz case before determining Walker's fate.
Not privy to full facts
Two notices circulated by Walker in his capacity as director of elections stating that all 146 candidates for the September 3, 2007 general election were duly nominated candidates were factored into Chief Justice Zaila McCalla's opinion that the voters of West Portland were not privy to the full facts surrounding Vaz's eligibility.
Walker had issued the press statements after Dabdoub circulated notices in West Portland advising that Vaz was an American citizen and votes cast for him would be wasted.
- D.L.
